ABSTRACT
Geographically, the major nations of Northeast Asia – China, Japan, the Koreas and Russia – are predisposed to be maritime powers. Geopolitically, it is logical that they also be naval powers. However, historically this has not been the case. While China has had periods of seafaring (particularly the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, from which the People’s Republic of China base their dubious claims in the South China Sea), and Japan (in the short period building up to World War II) and the Soviet Union (in the latter years of the Cold War) established themselves as naval powers for limited periods, the region’s security has been largely ground-army centric with only episodic interest in naval power.
